Spec a new PC - Where would you put your money?

[Matt Quinn]

I'm running dual core at the moment and it occasionally seems to max out at 100%, memory just 2Gb and rarely above half way. I guess to use 8Gb I have to go 64 bit. Maybe an SSD would be a big improvement, I hear good things about them booting and opening apps very quickly.

Buy another 2Gb - cheap, easy will make a huge difference...

[Draner]

for most work fewer faster cores are better than more slower ones.
SSD is a waist of time at the mo, crazy expensive and there is little proof that its actually any faster, just better for laptops as they use less power and withstand more shocks. Would recommend a good 7200rpm drive with loads of free space.
in my opinion go for the best graphics card your can get. a lot of programs are starting to take advantage of the kick a** processors and as always with computer the more the better in terms of memory.

before going nuts with RAM are the programs your planing to use 64bit? if not then i think it would pay to invest in software that can take full advantage of the hard wear.

[Justin]

Buy another 2Gb - cheap, easy will make a huge difference...

But XP won't recognise 4Gb?

[Justin]

for most work fewer faster cores are better than more slower ones.
SSD is a waist of time at the mo, crazy expensive and there is little proof that its actually any faster, just better for laptops as they use less power and withstand more shocks. Would recommend a good 7200rpm drive with loads of free space.
in my opinion go for the best graphics card your can get. a lot of programs are starting to take advantage of the kick a** processors and as always with computer the more the better in terms of memory.

before going nuts with RAM are the programs your planing to use 64bit? if not then i think it would pay to invest in software that can take full advantage of the hard wear.

Surprised about that with SSD's....read loads of reviews tonight and all say massive improvement. A friend at work fitted one and confirmed the same. I know there's a lot of hype surrounding the supposed speeds not being as good as stated but surely there must be a marked improvement?

Software won't really benefit from 64bit, I was looking at that with a view to running 8Gb+ memory.

[Draner]

SSDs may have changed a bit since i was last looking at them, but not that long ago all the research i did pointed toward them not being all they are cracked up to be, they may start off rapid but they don't stay that way. for the cost of them i would seriously recommend doing some in-depth research before splashing out.

[Matt Quinn]

But XP won't recognise 4Gb?

We have a few machines (albeit running XP Pro) that have and recognise 4Gb... Have a read here...

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/291988

[mgibbs]

I fitted a SSD to my PC as the system disc and a standard speed 1Tb SATA drive as my data drive.

Performance is much better but not cheap (I paid nearly £100 for 60Gb! If you go the SSD route make sure you get a latest generation one as last years models are much slower.

Windows 7 32bit is only about £3 cheaper than 64 bit so no reson to go for the 32 bit version.

Mark

[smitch6]

my poor lil mac won't allow 4gb i have to run 3gb

[JSR]

Cor, sometimes I wonder how I get through the day with my puny little netbook. :biggrin:

"Computer spec" is an endless cycle. You get a faster machine to run the software better, and the next release of the software is more bloated, so you then need a faster machine, so the next release can be more bloated.

While we continue to buy into the bloatware, the cycle will never stop. It surprises me that the human race didn't go extinct during the Dark Ages of low-spec PCs and Windows 98. Are we really doing things today that demand such higher spec PCs, or is it just the bloated software that perpetuates the cycle?

When I used my Amiga1200 some 20 years ago, I don't recall saying "blimey, I wish I had an 8-core multi-threaded multi-Terabyte system 4GB RAM".

I downloaded the trial of PhotoShop Elements a little while ago - almost 2GB just for the download and then 3GB for installation! What are those guys smoking? The minimum specs say it would run on my netbook, but it runs like a dog so I didn't bother with it in the end.